Maze Craze

Labyrinths Latest Fad for Spiritual Seekers

by Mark Tooley

It’s the latest fad in spirituality. Labyrinths, or maze-like circular
walking paths intended for meditation, are appearing in hundreds of churches
across the country from every denomination. Even hospitals, town squares, the
Smithsonian Institution, and the US House of Representatives office building
have opened their doors to the labyrinth.

Actually, a labyrinth is not literally a maze. Mazes have many paths, with
dead ends and multiple destinations. A labyrinth consists of a single winding
path that leads to the center. In the current craze, the labyrinth is usually
printed on a piece of canvas thrown down on the floor of a church meeting hall.
But more permanent labyrinths are constructed of raised earth, granite, or wood,
sometimes at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Walkers of the labyrinth
move through it in a meditative state.

Is the labyrinth inherently New Age or can orthodox Christians embrace it
as an acceptable tool for prayer and meditation? The labyrinth has its origins
in ancient pagan rituals, most famously at Knossos in ancient Crete, where one
was located in the basement of the famous palace where the man-eating Minotaur
was said to roam. The mythic hero Theseus journeyed through the labyrinth to
slay the creature, which had a human body and the head of a bull. Theseus’s
double-headed ax was called a “labrys,” hence the name. Other labyrinths
in ancient cultures were tied to fertility rites and goddess worship.

But the example most enthusiasts cite is the labyrinth embedded in the floor
of the medieval Chartres Cathedral in France. There is speculation, but seemingly
no firm evidence, that ancient or medieval Christians literally walked through
labyrinths, at Chartres or elsewhere. Its advocates within the Christian Church
today like to portray labyrinth walking as a “rediscovery” of a
lost form of Christian spirituality.

Some proponents believe that medieval Christians walked through labyrinths
as a substitute for pilgrimages to the Holy Land. To support their theory, they
point to the placement of labyrinths on cathedral floors as opposed to walls
or ceilings. Labyrinths in medieval cathedrals and churches almost certainly
had symbolic meaning, although documentation is scarce to nonexistent. One possibility
is that the ancient Greek myth was Christianized, so that the Minotaur represented
the devil, and Theseus represented the victorious Christ. Doreen Prydes, a professor
of medieval history at the University of Notre Dame, says there is absolutely
no evidence of labyrinth walking in the Middle Ages. She believes that Christians
of that era saw the labyrinth as a symbol of redemption, not pilgrimage.

A Big Open House

The mother of the modern labyrinth movement is Lauren Artress, canon of Grace
Cathedral in San Francisco. In her public speaking, she is sometimes vague about
the theological implications of the labyrinth, which she calls a “big
spiritual open house.” Artress, who is also a psychotherapist, speaks
more often in the lingo of Jungian psychotherapy than of traditional Christian
practice. For her, the labyrinth is for the “transformation of human personality
in progress” that can accomplish a “shift in consciousness as we
seek spiritual maturity as a species.”

Artress says she walked her first labyrinth at a seminar in 1991 with psychologist
and mystic/channeler Jean Houston, who several years ago assisted First Lady
Hillary Clinton in trying to contact the departed spirit of Eleanor Roosevelt.
A subsequent visit to Chartres Cathedral, where the medieval labyrinth can still
be seen in the floor, further encouraged Artress to write her 1995 book, Walking
a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool, and to
launch her national movement, based at Grace Cathedral.

Having become canon pastor at Grace Cathedral in 1986, Artress established
“Quest: Grace Cathedral Center for Spiritual Wholeness,” whose goal
is to construct “understanding” between the traditional Church and
“nontraditional forms of spirituality.” She calls her discovery
of the labyrinth one of the “most astonishing events of my life.”
For her, the labyrinth is a “spiritual tool meant to awaken us to the
deep rhythm that unites us to ourselves and to the Light that calls from within.”

Artress had earlier studied with Houston in 1985. At a 1991 “Mystery
School” seminar hosted by Houston, Artress recalled that she was overcome
with an “almost violent anxiety” as she stepped onto a labyrinth
for the first time. Although assured by Houston that the ancient pathway would
“lead each of us to our own center,” Artress said she knew immediately
it would dramatically shake her life.

In her book, unlike her public speaking, Artress does not disguise her contempt
for “fundamentalism” and the “religious right,” whose
“literal interpretation of the Bible . . . breeds small-mindedness
and mean-spiritedness.” Its supposed emphasis on following strict rules
reminds her of the “shadow of the human spirit that led to Hitler and
World War II.” Artress assures readers that she identifies with the “open-minded
Christian church,” but confesses plainly that this tradition has lost
its spiritual force. The Church must “forge a new identity.”

After returning from her visit to Chartres, Artress arranged for a labyrinth
to be displayed at Grace Cathedral. It immediately drew thousands of San Franciscans
to walk its path. Her book recounts that many spiritual seekers openly wept
as they found inner healing. Others have even found physical healing from the
labyrinth’s supposed power.

The labyrinth contravenes notions about the “straight and narrow”
found within Christianity, which imply that we can make mistakes. Instead, Artress
tell us, the labyrinth is more forgiving and leads its followers forward in
a flawless path.

Like many modern adherents of the labyrinth, Artress emphasizes its syncretistic
inclusiveness. Found historically in almost every culture, from Hopi medicine
wheels to Tibetan sand paintings, the labyrinth is a tool useful to all religions
and to persons with no specific religion. Its “sacred geometry is based
on ancient, sacred knowledge” that is universal, Artress notes.

From Chartres to San Francisco

Nearly every major newspaper in the country has written at some point over
the last five years about the growing popularity of labyrinth walking. And nearly
every article cites its supposed roots in medieval Christianity and Chartres
Cathedral. This claim is odd, because even Artress, the self-described “Johnny
Appleseed” of the labyrinth movement, makes no claims, at least in her
book, about early or medieval Christians walking labyrinths. Instead, Artress
admits there are “no known records of anyone walking the labyrinth”
at these churches, and she acknowledges that she knows of “no Christian
writers or artists who directly refer to the labyrinth as a spiritual tool”
in early or medieval history.

But she speculates that labyrinths were perhaps a “sacred tool that no
one was allowed to talk about.” Unfortunately, she writes, the historical
records of Chartres Cathedral from the period when the labyrinth was constructed
have been lost or destroyed.

At first, Artress apparently had trouble persuading the officials of Chartres
Cathedral to adopt her intense interest in the labyrinth. She notes that when
she first “discovered” their labyrinth in the floor, it was covered
by 256 chairs. She and her friends, without official approval, surreptitiously
moved the chairs aside so they could take their first meditative walk through
it. Afterwards, cathedral officials erected a sign warning that the labyrinth
“cannot be a magical place where man pulls hidden forces from the Earth.
That would be (were one to do so) a perversion of the builders/creators. For
in doing so, one would substitute man in place of God.”

Since then, cathedral officials seem to have become more open towards the
labyrinth movement. Artress has conducted two programs there. Last year, the
cathedral devoted a month to examination of the labyrinth, and hundreds of labyrinth
walkers were invited to walk the path by candlelight. The rector at Chartres
has become an honorary canon at Grace Cathedral, with Chartres reciprocating
with an honorific title for Artress’s superior, Dean Alan Jones of Grace
Cathedral.

The Divine Mother

At least initially, officials at Chartres Cathedral seemed to understand about
the labyrinth movement what many US churches apparently do not. The emphasis
of the labyrinth’s proponents is upon the mystical powers of the inner
self, not on the transcendent God of traditional Christianity.

Artress frequently mentions “the Source,” “the Sacred,”
and “the God within,” which has been “destroyed through centuries
of patriarchal domination, through fears of creativity and of the traits associated
with the feminine.” Artress prefers this “Source” to the transcendent
God “out there” who “keeps track of whether we follow the
rules.”

Besides cases of both emotional and physical healing found in the labyrinth,
Artress cites “revelatory experiences” resulting from the walk.
One friend, she reports, frequently experiences a “Hara” stream
of energy beginning at her abdomen and rushing through her body.

Artress repeats the claims of some radical feminist theologians that nine
million women were burned at the stake as witches during the Middle Ages in
a patriarchal attempt to suppress feminine spiritual vitality. “The old
religions that embraced the connection to the natural world were destroyed,”
she laments. “We lost our connection to creation. Trusting the labyrinth
is one step towards reclaiming that connection,” she concludes.

Tragically for Artress and other labyrinth enthusiasts, Yahweh remains a “stumbling
block for many seekers.” This stern, jealous, male God, who is so “repugnant”
to many people, is supposed to have created all of the natural order, “usurping”
the role of the “Mother, the creator of life.” Artress asserts that
too many Christians are afraid to liberate themselves from this tyrannical deity
and to trust instead “our inner, objective experience.”

Artress likes to quote Carl Jung about “archetypes” and Joseph
Campbell about “the numinous.” She has helped Matthew Fox organize
his pantheistic “planetary mass.” She also seems to be an adherent
of process theology, believing that “God” is constantly unfolding
into a new process and new identity, revealed through our own experiences. Like
the labyrinth, this “Mother god weaves the web of creation.” The
labyrinth, like the goddess, is “all-encompassing in its twists and turns,
reflecting the presence of the Divine.”

A Dubious Tapestry

Admitting that some still find mercy in Christ, whose teachings she admits
illustrate compassion, Artress also observes that Jesus as the Christ is too
often not helpful because he is closely tied to the patriarchy. Instead, she
summons us to the more inclusive “Father and Mother God” and “The
Greening Power of God, the Holy Spirit in all Her mystery,” who is found
in the “power of The Divine within.”

“She [the Holy Spirit] weaves each of us into the tapestry of this physical
life,” Artress continues. “It is this Power that will bring spiritual
transformation to fruition. The labyrinth is a tool that can connect us to this
Power. The creative intelligence that gave us this labyrinth understood the
Mystery behind human existence.”

Despite Artress’s contempt for their faith, no doubt some faithful Christians
have walked the labyrinth that Artress has popularized. No doubt they have prayed
to Christ as they turned and swiveled through the curving path, believing that
they have been drawn closer to the Lord by the experience. It should be acknowledged
that there is historical precedent for the transformation of pagan symbols into
instruments for Christian worship.

But Christians who walk the labyrinth should know there is little if any proof
in church history that labyrinth walking has been a spiritual tool for Christians.
More important, they should know that its current popularizers see the labyrinth’s
spiritually amorphous path more as a partial replacement for the transcendent
God of Christianity than as a tool to bring followers closer to him.

“Maze Craze” first appeared in the September 2000 issue of Touchstone. If you enjoyed this article, you'll find more of the same in every issue.

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